The present invention relates to a stacking and driving mechanism for output pages from a reproduction machine, particularly a wide-format reproduction machine.
In the reproduction arts, such as photocopying, an apparatus suitable for use in an office is typically designed to accommodate three sizes of paper in four different configurations--letter size (81/4 inches by 11 inches), legal size (81/4 inches by 14 inches), ledger size (91/4 inches by 12 inches), and letter size rotated ninety degrees. The desirability of having the resultant duplicate copies collected, sorted and collated is well-established by the abundance of office photocopy machines that offer these features.
However, in the reproduction arts, as the size and the range of sizes of the duplicates being handled increases, the versatility required of the transport mechanism, including the stacking mechanism, increases. This is particularly acute in wide-format engineering photocopy applications. Whereas the aforementioned typical office photocopy machine handles a range of paper sizes which varies in size by a ratio of two to one or less, the typical wide-format engineering photocopy machine is required to handle a range of paper sizes which varies by a ratio greater than sixteen to one.
For instance, when the duplicate paper is too long, the photocopy stacking mechanisms of the prior art had a tendency either to not transport the copy far enough into the receiving tray due to the increased surface area or to transport the copy too far into the receiving tray due to the protrusion of the trailing edge, thereby resulting in paper jamming and deformation.
Conversely, in the prior art, when the duplicates are significantly shorter than the receiving tray, the duplicate's trailing edge frequently is left in the path of the leading edge of subsequent documents. This results in paper jamming and deformation, or at the least, interleaving of the duplicates.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a stacking mechanism for reproduction machines, particularly wide-format engineering photocopy machines, which can accommodate a broad range of paper sizes.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a stacking mechanism that is reliable, simple and inexpensive.